b) the tennis schools lack ambition and high performance profil, no try outs, no selection, all should play, no one should lose, good players should not go to elite group etc, tennis should just be play up to age 14, not serious sport....therefore strong athletes dont get challenged in that environment, and go to other sports

c) related to a and b above, not enough practice in terms of hours, a couple of hours per week is not enough when there are kids over the globe that practice 3-4 hours per day

On the positive side is Good to Great tennis academy founded by Magnus Norman, Kulti, Bergstrom 3 years ago. They have sponsors and majority of swedish top juniors are training there. Ymer brothers for example and the 16 year older brother is ranked top 10 ITF, ang the younger brother top europe 14 U

Gone are the days when we could proudly say "we are a great tennis country". Borg, Wilander, Edberg, Enqvist, Larsson, Järryd, Johansson, Penfors, etc. Today, we have nothing.

Gone are the days when we could send prisoners to the Bahamas for vacation as part of their rehabilitation. Prisoners no longer riot due to not having enough cream on their strawberry dessert. Gone are the days when we could leave our motorcycles, bikes and cars on the streets unlocked. Gone are the days when we could proudly say we have the best health care system in the world. Gone are the days when our state could provide a handicapped child 2 nurses to attend its needs on a daily basis.

What we have today: Influx of illiterate immigrants whom when granted citizenship do not even want to be a part of the Swedish society. They refuse to learn the culture nor the language. The school is free yet they refuse to attend one. Instead they stay at home with 10-15 kids and get 30000 SEK a month while having all their bills paid. Swedish police and justice system is too weak to counter the new types of crimes perpetrated by immigration. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame these immigrants for coming to Sweden, I blame our politicians. For me immigration per-se is a good thing because of the cultural mix but it has to be managed well. Having said that, not all immigrants are "parasites" as the racist Sweden Democrats want us to believe. Many second and third generation immigrants have been very productive parts of our society and they come from everywhere: former Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. As an ethnic Swede (not really, my ancestors moved to Sweden in the 15th century from Belgium), I'm worried about the future of my country because of how badly managed it is both economically and socially. I'm sure many Western European countries are in the same situation.

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Djokovic2011 on Nadal at RG :"Peak Graf would've given him a good run for his money".

Gone are the days when we could proudly say "we are a great tennis country". Borg, Wilander, Edberg, Enqvist, Larsson, Järryd, Johansson, Penfors, etc. Today, we have nothing.

Gone are the days when we could send prisoners to the Bahamas for vacation as part of their rehabilitation. Prisoners no longer riot due to not having enough cream on their strawberry dessert. Gone are the days when we could leave our motorcycles, bikes and cars on the streets unlocked. Gone are the days when we could proudly say we have the best health care system in the world. Gone are the days when our state could provide a handicapped child 2 nurses to attend its needs on a daily basis.

What we have today: Influx of illiterate immigrants whom when granted citizenship do not even want to be a part of the Swedish society. They refuse to learn the culture nor the language. The school is free yet they refuse to attend one. Instead they stay at home with 10-15 kids and get 30000 SEK a month while having all their bills paid. Swedish police and justice system is too weak to counter the new types of crimes perpetrated by immigration. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame these immigrants for coming to Sweden, I blame our politicians. For me immigration per-se is a good thing because of the cultural mix but it has to be managed well. Having said that, not all immigrants are "parasites" as the racist Sweden Democrats want us to believe. Many second and third generation immigrants have been very productive parts of our society and they come from everywhere: former Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. As an ethnic Swede (not really, my ancestors moved to Sweden in the 15th century from Belgium), I'm worried about the future of my country because of how badly managed it is both economically and socially. I'm sure many Western European countries are in the same situation.

Beside your senseless general political babbling, I find it funny that you mention immigration (though without directly blaming it) in a thread about the downfall of a nation in sport, when a good part of the best sportsman comes from the immigration in all the rich countries. Henrik and Zlatan can tell you.

Beside your senseless general political babbling, I find it funny that you mention immigration (though without directly blaming it) in a thread about the downfall of a nation in sport, when a good part of the best sportsman comes from the immigration in all the rich countries. Henrik and Zlatan can tell you.

This thread is more about the downfall of Sweden in general. And a lot of that can be blamed on immigration.

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I used to drink too much. I still do, but I used to, too.

This thread is more about the downfall of Sweden in general. And a lot of that can be blamed on immigration.

Only ignorant fools will blame the downfall of Sweden on immigration. Sweden used to be a socialistic democratic country for 4-5 decades up until the 90's when the population decided that they instead want capitalism. That's the root of the downfall if anything.

Don't forget that the top 5% in Sweden are much richer now compared to the late 80's. This happens almost everywhere in the western world.

Anyway, this probably doesn't have that much to do with the state of swedish tennis. At least sweden has 4 juniors atm who's got the potential to become top 50 in the next 10 years. And should they do well in the grand slams, then surely the swedish public service (the swedish BBC if you will) is gonna start to broadcast French Open, Wimbledon, Stockholm Open, Swedish Open etc like they just to do in the 80-90's. And that will spawn more interest etc etc

Only ignorant fools will blame the downfall of Sweden on immigration. Sweden used to be a socialistic democratic country for 4-5 decades up until the 90's when the population decided that they instead want capitalism. That's the root of the downfall if anything.

Don't forget that the top 5% in Sweden are much richer now compared to the late 80's. This happens almost everywhere in the western world.

Anyway, this probably doesn't have that much to do with the state of swedish tennis. At least sweden has 4 juniors atm who's got the potential to become top 50 in the next 10 years. And should they do well in the grand slams, then surely the swedish public service (the swedish BBC if you will) is gonna start to broadcast French Open, Wimbledon, Stockholm Open, Swedish Open etc like they just to do in the 80-90's. And that will spawn more interest etc etc

didn't sweden have ridiculously high taxes at one Point?

I heard that Astrid lindgren once had a tax bill of 101% of her income.

Only ignorant fools will blame the downfall of Sweden on immigration. Sweden used to be a socialistic democratic country for 4-5 decades up until the 90's when the population decided that they instead want capitalism. That's the root of the downfall if anything.

Don't forget that the top 5% in Sweden are much richer now compared to the late 80's. This happens almost everywhere in the western world.

Anyway, this probably doesn't have that much to do with the state of swedish tennis. At least sweden has 4 juniors atm who's got the potential to become top 50 in the next 10 years. And should they do well in the grand slams, then surely the swedish public service (the swedish BBC if you will) is gonna start to broadcast French Open, Wimbledon, Stockholm Open, Swedish Open etc like they just to do in the 80-90's. And that will spawn more interest etc etc

It's the dance of chicken and egg my friend. The fact is that immigration has all but destroyed Sweden. Blame it on capitalism if you want, but, last I checked, Uncle Sam doesn't go around raping women.

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I used to drink too much. I still do, but I used to, too.

I heard that Astrid lindgren once had a tax bill of 101% of her income.

Yeah, but it was just an error. It was more than 101% btw

Sweden has really high taxes, but the wealth they had up until the 90's was really good and spread even. Free world class health care, free education incl. uni, safest roads, cleanest water etc, the list goes on and on. Then the right wingers came...

Sweden has had a pretty huge amount of immigrants coming to Sweden ever since the early 60's. It's never been an issue.

Anyway, this is a bit off topic, sorry.

I think these things goes in cycles anyway, no country can be on top forever, not even the 320 million pop. USA. Also we can't expect Sweden to get back to how it was in the 80's when they had 7 players among the top 20, with a population of 7-8 million.